Police still scuttle around our property as dawn breaks, collecting evidence and generally trying to figure the case out piece by piece.

I sit with Rae, legs dangling from the back of the ambulance.

She's still a little shaken up, still stuttering and shivering.

I drape my arm around her shoulders and pull her close, thankful that I made it in time, if only we had gotten there in time to save Emma.

Andrew stares longingly at us from his seat in the back of the police cruiser that's been parked in the driveway.

He looks at me and shakes his head, motioning me over towards him.

I shoot him a death glare, but get up and head over to him anyway.

I reach the door and he raises his cuffed hand and rolls down the window slightly.

"Pete, man, you gotta get me out of this thing," he says, his eyes begging for help.

I just stare at him, flat out amazed at the fact that he has the audacity to even ask such a favor of me.

"C'mon, you're creative, make something up and tell them to let me go," he persists.

"You tried to fucking kill her! Do you seriously think I'm gonna lie to them just so you can go free and just keep doing what you've been doing?"

"Pete I won't, I swear, I've learned my lesson."

I simply shake my head and glare at him,"I can't believe my own brother..." my voice trails off and I walk back to the ambulance.

---

As it turns out, my nightmares were right from the very beginning, and it was my intuition that saved her.

Even though these three months have passed I still look at Rae and wonder how my own brother could ever even think of hurting her.

And though she's safe, the trial didn't go as well as we hoped.

Andrew had first met Rae while working our merch booth at one of our early shows in Chicago.

He claims it started out as innocent - they chat while he rings up her purchase and that was the end of it - but he refused to let it end there.

He used the information she provided when she wrote out the check to find her in the phone book, and soon started making those anonymous calls.

The stalking, as Andrew and his lawyer asserted, was a way for him to get close to Rae.

And when Rae seemed OK to talk to his mysterious phone caller persona Andrew started to confuse their relationship and got all possessive about it, including getting angrier and angrier as she and I began to get closer.

And so began the eerie break-ins, notes, and phone calls.

The items in his backpack had been collected when he ransacked the house - Rae relics to add to his collection.

He plead that he never intended to physically harm Rae.

And the jury believed him.

They also believed him when he said that he killed Emma completely by accident.

He said that the night he had come to the window in the hopes of luring Rachael away to the construction site - his idea of romance - that Emma had openly confronted him, claiming she knew all about what was going on.

So he ran, and Emma followed.

He told the jury that he had run into the forest and tried to hide, fearing that Emma would try to pick a fight.

He tried to climb up a hill, but sent several stones rolling down it, and ended up killing her.

Afterwards he freaked out, and tried to hide the body in the tall grass near the hill, placing her at the foot to make it look like she was the one who had fallen.

He ran back to our house, and finally lured Rae out of the house, telling her that he needed to speak to her in person concerning something urgent.

Andrew led her to the skeleton house - taking a detour around the murder site - and professed his undying love for her.

She got weirded out and told him that she wanted to go home.

Andrew said no, nabbed her, but then freaked out and didn't know what to do when she didn't seem pleased with his plans for happily ever after.

This being said, he plead that his actions weren't premeditated.

The lilies, out of pure irony, were chosen simply because Andrew liked them and their charm best represented Rae.

When he caught Joe and I in the woods he panicked and made up the story about someone following us and Andy calling him for help.

He told us to stay put in the hopes that we would wait just long enough for him to move Rae from the construction site to somewhere more remote.

In the end, he was charged with involuntary manslaughter and labeled temporarily insane, and was sent away to a detention center with freedom only five years away.

It just doesn't seem fitting.

He'll be free to go in five years, Emma will be dead forever.

After his arrest, the officer gave me a long talk about getting involved where I have no business, how dangerous it was that Joe and I opted to take him on ourselves instead of immediately calling them for help, how I could have jeopardized everything, and most importantly how I shouldn't make up stories about how I was having nightmares predicting the entire event, apparently it's not possible.

Needless to say they weren't stories.

But then he also thanked me and told me how brave I was.

Though that didn't exactly make up for the sick feeling that it still gives me to think that my brother, my own flesh and blood, would even dream of such things.

And now, three months after the trial, and three months after the incident, I find myself next to Rae under the tree once again.

I stand holding her hands, looking with her up into the sky at the moon and all the stars, they aren't even remotely visible in the city.

She lets go and motions to sit and I do the same, tucking my hands into my hoodie pocket and suddenly I remember why I brought her here in the first place.

I run my hands over the small, square object again and again, trying to think of what to say, and when my gift for one-liners fails me, I opt for the generic.

I take a deep breath and shift onto one knee as Rae looks at me in confusion.

I suck in another breath of air and slowly pull out the small, velvety black box and my mind goes blank.

"Marry me?" is all I can manage.

She smiles and nods her head, kissing me.

I slip the ring on her finger and sit back down next to her, my arm around her shoulder.

I feel stronger now than ever before.

Not because I'm engaged to the woman of my dreams.

Not because of saving Rae, or putting Andrew in jail.

But because I know that no matter how many nightmares I'll have in the future, I can finally trust myself.